Steady State #Manchester is pleased to present its first two reports, In Place of Growth and Living Well. We have a launch event on 20 November details here. Both are published here in .pdf format. We can supply other versions and you can buy a hard copy at the launch. If you want to get a feel for them (before studying them thoroughly!) there is an executive summary at this link

How do we create a society with local prosperity and justice? How do we prepare for the challenges that climate change and other aspects of the ecological crisis are already bringing? In June 2012 members of what became Steady State Manchester were involved in discussions with Manchester City Council about the idea of a Steady State Economy. While these discussions were open and amicable, we decided that more work was needed to articulate the arguments for Steady State in ways that were appropriate and practical for Manchester. We also wanted to broaden the discussion to include other stake-holders from business (both private and co-operatively run), civil society and academia. This report is a first step in meeting both these aims.As Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Cooperatives UK says in his foreword:
“The steady state economy … asks us to think about other things that we
can grow and develop at the same time as holding our environmental
impacts down. It is not a form of cultural entropy or decay. As this
visionary report for Manchester makes clear, there are imaginative
options open at the city level and all of them tend to start with an
interest in people and community.”And in his foreword, Professor Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre on Climate Science says:
“A literal reading of the Copenhagen Accord allied with the common
refrain of Stern and others that economic growth cannot be reconciled
with annual mitigation rates exceeding 2% to 4%, leaves contemporary society facing an uncomfortable dilemma. …. Holding to even an outside chance of 2°C cannot be reconciled with economic growth. …. for the Annex 1 nations, the UK and for Manchester the choice is … to begin immediate and deep reductions in emissions at the
same time as transitioning towards a steady-state economy. Or to
continue with economic growth in the short-term, with “extremely
dangerous”and “devastating”impacts collapsing such growth in the
medium term.“read the report here

Though the link between steady state economics and international solidarity may not be immediately obvious, the two issues are closely connected in many ways. Steady state economics is all about local and regional economies and learning to be more self-sufficient, but that doesn’t mean we stop caring about those beyond our borders. The de-linking of Manchester’s economy from the global economy has to happen with one eye on our local communities and another on the underprivileged communities that the global system of trade currently has in its fold. As such, one important question that we have to answer when looking at steady-state economies is: how do we manage the transition to steady state in ways that minimises exploitation of people of the global South, and also minimise the shocks to their economies and livelihoods?As Samora Machel, former president of Mozambique said:“International Solidarity is not an act of charity but an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objectives.”read the report here

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